Disclaimer: I do not now or before and most likely not in the future, own Final Fantasy, Square Enix or any of the characters.

Reviews, critiques, and flames are welcome. I absolutely love all reviews about the story as it gives me motivation, I use good constructive criticism to help my writing improve and I feed the flames to the fires of my imagination.

A/N: Within the flashback that is italicized, the part that isn't italicized is the character's thoughts.

Guest review: Thanks for the head's up on the run-on sentences, but my English Professor and my betas assure me that they aren't run-on if they are properly worded and correctly punctuated. If you tell me which sentences may have a problem, I could fix them though! There may be a few that have gotten past us. About the commas, I am a comma whore, I love my commas, a little too much sometimes! Thank you so much for taking time to review!

Thanks to my before posting beta Queen of Jokers and my after posting beta SubZeroChimera!

"I'm the one that's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to." –Jimi Hendrix

Chapter 31

After knocking on the door, he heard laughter and some talking, getting louder as someone approached the door. When the door opened, he was greeted with a shocked look. Not just a shocked look, it was like the blonde was looking at a dancing banana wearing a sombrero while singing the Tom Jones song, "It's Not Unusual," and as if he wasn't pale enough, the kid turned a sickening shade of white and still said nothing.

From behind the kid he heard a deep voice ask, "Cloud, who is it?"

The blond hit the floor like a slab of concrete and when the silver-haired man rushed to get to Cloud, he turned white as well, "It c-can't be…" Sephiroth dropped to his knees.

The man standing in the doorway, smiled a nervous smile while rubbing at the back of his head, "Yeah… it's me."

Everyone in the room was frozen except for the blond girl who went over to Cloud and tried to rouse him, "What is going on? Someone tell me something."

"Here, let me help you," The stranger bent over and picked Cloud up under his arms, dragging him to the couch, and he tapping his face gently, "Spiky."

Cloud's eye lids danced before they opened and when he focused on the face in front of him, he almost jumped out of his skin, "What is this? Is this another trick?!"

"No, it's real," The brunette smiled a large smile and looked around the room. The sight of his friends made his heart jump in excitement. The feelings of the past warmed him as he thought of them, good and bad.

Tifa had stayed in the same spot and finally said, "How is this possible? I thought you were dead."

"He's the friend that died?!" Alana shrieked and leaned on one of the kitchen chairs to keep from falling.

That statement cut deep. He had been dead. It was a reality that he had to deal with. How were his friends going to take it, he was back from the great beyond? Although she didn't mean anything malicious by the words, they gashed at his soul. The same soul that was once in a peaceful rest and then he got yanked back by Hojo. This was just one more of Hojo's tortures that he implemented.

"Seph, Cloud, say something. Please," He glanced back and forth between them.

Sephiroth's mouth hung agape, "Cloud saw you die, I saw your body. Did H-Hojo do this?"

Looking down, he rubbed his head, "Yes. I uh… I've been in his lab here in Midgar for the last eleven months." He was guessing that he would have the same reaction if one of his friends popped up after a year of being dead.

Both of his friends had the same dumb look of disbelief until Cloud suddenly jumped at him, grabbing him in a huge and tight hug. With a relieving, yet still nervous laugh, Zack hugged Cloud back, "Whoa buddy, I'm not going anywhere any time soon." Without another word, Sephiroth came over and joined the hug. Closing his eyes, he relished in his friends' embraces, the feeling of love and friendship that he died for, and would die for again. "Wow, both of you two never liked hugs before. So it took me getting killed to get ya'll to finally like hugs?" This was the best hug he ever received so far.

They sat up all night talking and catching up and Cloud asked with a smile, "How did you escape this time?"

"Well that is an interesting story," Zack started, "Let me start at the beginning." Taking a drink of the beer that Cloud gave him, he let it slosh around in his mouth, savoring the bitter flavor that he'd missed before he swallowed and took a deep breath…

Opening his eyes, the brilliantly bright light radiated just above his face.

Trying to reach up to block the light from his eyes, his arm felt like a huge weight, dead at the end of his shoulder. The weak feeling that he just noticed that started in his arm permeated his entire body. In addition to that, it felt like millions of tiny iron-hot needles covered him and with every movement, they would pinch through his skin into his muscles, an extreme case of pins and needles.

Some fuzziness clouded his thoughts and he struggled to turn his face away from the light, but his neck muscles were having the same problem as the rest of his body. Moving only his eyes, a sinking feeling in his gut gnawed at him when he saw that he was in a lab, he muttered weakly, "Son of a bitch, what am I doing back here?" A woman walked over and took his vitals, "Tell me what is going on lady."

Despite the pins and needles pain, he tried to sit up, but there was a strap of some sort around his chest and another one around his hips and his feet were all restrained. She tied his arm back down and when he tried to resist her actions, a different kind of pain stopped him with a quick inhale and a cry out. Suddenly feeling as though his guts were attached to strings, moving too much, the strings would yank up and pull each one of his organs up and out of his body. A scowl of misery and disgust covered his face.

The woman quietly said, "Don't move, you will only tire yourself out. I just extubated you so you need to rest for now and keep your breathing slow and steady." She turned and left without another word.

He couldn't help it; he started screaming in anger, frustration and out right fright. The guts on strings feelings stopped his screaming when the pain increased to the point that his skin became sensitive to his perception that it were being ripped open. He breathed hard and tried looking around again, he had to get his bearings and maybe figure out where the hell he was. He didn't see Cloud or Sephiroth, so either they weren't captured, somewhere else or worse, dead.

This lab looked different from the one in Nibelheim. It somehow looked cleaner. There was an IV and several other tubes that he couldn't see where they went into his body, but he wasn't exactly sure he wanted to know. Even if he did want to know, he couldn't raise his head anyway. Two of the tubes that were attached to what looked like a large vat that had thick yellow goo and another tube had a dark blue viscous fluid. Other tubes had different looking stuff going into his body, and others that had odd colored stuff coming out and toward large collection bags. It looked like there were at least half a dozen different tubes. The thought made him sick to his stomach because none of it looked like blood.

Then the voice that he still had nightmares about spoke to him, "Hello Z, it is nice to see you again."

If his heart could stop at the sight of another person, this was it. He held his breath and he exhaustively worked to keep any tears at bay, "Hojo, what part of hell are you really from?" Being at the mercy of Hojo once again made his guts on strings feeling to take a back seat to his fear. Tears welled up and a few spilled over and down into his ears despite his fight to keep them back. Hojo came over and injected his IV with something.

How could this be happening? He didn't think he could go through Hojo's hell again.

"I would think that you would be happy to see me. I mean after all, I saved your life. I think you would be grateful," Hojo sneered and showed his lipless smile.

Zack wanted to pound the flesh from his face at that moment, but he snapped, "What do you mean you saved my life?"

"Z, what is the last thing that you remember, before waking up here?" Hojo put his hands on one side of the bed and leaned over so that Zack could see his face better, "Think hard."

Zack thought about it for a moment, 'I was watching Sephiroth walking towards Midgar. I hid Cloud for the night and there was the sound of helicopters and I saw soldiers everywhere. I fought so many.' Zack looked at Hojo, and Hojo urged him to think even harder. 'It started raining and I got shot and fell in the mud. The sky was so dark and then Cloud leaned over me. He looked so sad, so lost and scared so I gave him my sword to take of and it got really dark after that. I heard Cloud screaming, but he would be okay, he was a strong kid. The crying sounded so far away. Then there was a dazzling light and a weightless feeling.' Zack looked back at Hojo and he said nothing. 'Did I die? Is that what happened? That had to be it, I died…' Those were the memories, the last thoughts of his death, Zack cried.

"There you go Z, now don't you feel better knowing the truth?"

Zack couldn't talk at first. His last thoughts flooded and feelings replayed over and over in his head and weighed heavy in his heart. Zack's voice cracked and he stopped trying to hide his feelings, "What did you do to me? Where are Cloud and Sephiroth?"

"Well that is something that I hoped you could help me with. Now that I know that you're not brain-dead, we can proceed," Hojo moved around the room, gathering things and placing them on a side table. Two nurses came in and he spoke to them while his eyes stayed fixed on Zack, "Prepare for surgery," The nurses nodded and began prepping Zack. One of them put something in his IV.

"If you think that I am going to help you, you're mistaken, you piece of shit," Zack started feeling sleepy and he fought it as much as he could, but the medicine they gave him took over.

When he woke up, he was in a whole new area. The room he was in had glass walls, in the middle of a larger room. His new glass cell was on a raised platform for all the scientists around him in the larger room could see him all around. Inside the cell, the bed was on one side and a toilet and a sink along the wall just across from the bed. The metal grating that made up the floor, scraped against the skin on his feet when he tried to stand. Well he wouldn't consider it standing, more like leaning against the wall.

The loose white cotton pants that he wore tied around his waist, but that wasn't what bothered him. It was the new scars on his abdomen. Not new, they'd already healed and were in the same spots as the ones that Cloud had. Some looked to disappear on one side and others he could tell had been there for a while, but were mostly gone. He also had smaller scars that were blending in with his skin. The monitor leads on his chest and head that connected to a hub high up on the ceiling of his glass cell. As he studied his new surroundings, the IV attached to his forearm began to sting. He hissed at the pain as it traveled up his arm into his shoulder. Following the IV tube with his eyes, it ended in the center hub.

Some of the monitors beeped while techs and doctors walked all around the cell and some took notes at various monitors. Remembering when he was a kid, he had an ant farm, he suddenly felt like one of the tiny ants. So little and insignificant, on display in his glass zoo habitat as Hojo's new pet guinea pig, it was really rubbing him the wrong way.

Slowly shuffling to one wall, he pounded on it demanding answers, he didn't see Hojo until he spoke, "Z, you need to calm down or we will have to sedate you again." The scientist was standing at a console that had buttons and flashing lights. All around him, techs were busy and the three video monitors next to him had different angles of the cell he was in, showing him at different angles. Nurses and assistants scurried around like the little ants that Hojo thought of them as.

"Hojo, tell me what is going on," Zack hit the glass again and Hojo looked up at him.

"I am busy now Z," He turned to one of the male nurses, "Start the infusion and call me if there is any change."

Zack pounded on the glass again, "Damn it Hojo! Tell me what is going on!" Hojo left and the nurse that Hojo was talking to walked over to a console that was closer to Zack's cell. Banging on the glass, he hoped he could get any one of the many techs or nurses to even look at him. However, when he did succeed in someone acknowledging his existence, it hit him hard that he was just a specimen to them too.

With a few button pushes, a blue mist started seeping through some holes that were in the floor grates. A light blue liquid began coming at him through his IV tube at the same time.

Zack flattened his back up against the wall and tried holding his breath. Deep down he knew it was futile, but human nature sometimes takes over and overrides common sense. Human? Was he even human anymore? When Zack's eyes began to burn, he squeezed them shut and took an unintentional deep breath. He started coughing immediately from the deep penetrating burning and fell to his knees. His hand went to his throat as he started coughing harder until he vomited. When he couldn't catch his breath, he felt a burning in his arm as a different substance pumped into him. Whatever it was he was unable to stay conscious.

Being lifted and gently laid down on a bed woke him. Extremely weak, he couldn't move much, but he turned his head to see some techs on the other side of the glass. They always took notes, it didn't matter what it was… they were always taking notes. 'I wonder if they take notes about the color of my shit too.' That thought disturbed him in a way he hadn't initially intended.

Taking a tentative deep inhale, the pain in his body intensified again when he tried to talk, but nothing came out. Pulling his hand in front of his face took most of his energy, but he was able to reach down to touch his stomach. Bandaging, he couldn't feel his skin, just bandaging all around his abdomen. 'I wonder if my skin is still there.'

His throat was dry and parched and when he tried to clear his throat, he started throwing up and just turning his head didn't help, he found enough energy to roll over onto his side. Panic, was all he could do when the sight and taste of blood assaulted his vision. A frenzy of noise became a cacophony when his head rang and spun with dizziness. More blood, bright red fresh blood, everywhere, the panic he felt was becoming a feeling that he was getting used to. He hated being used to the feeling of fear and panic all the time.

A loud male voice that didn't sound like Hojo yelled, "Get him under now!" He figured it was one of the techs. As Zack choked on his blood a white mist came through the floor again and he fell into darkness.

…Waking up on the bed in his cell, he tried to sit up, but his abdomen was full of pain so he rolled to his side and pushed himself up from his side. With his stomach still bandaged, a little blood had seeped through showing that he bled from the newer scars. Trying to talk again, he was able to get out in a hoarse, husky voice, "What are you doing to me?" Standing and shambling slowly over to one of the walls facing two nurses and one lab tech, he stared at them just as they stared at him.

No one answered him, no surprise there, "Where is Cloud and Sephiroth? Someone tell me something, please," Sliding down the wall to his knees, he sat on his heels, his hand made a squeak sound as it followed the wall down to the floor. Weakened further, he put his forehead down gently until it touched the grating on the floor. Was this what he was born for? To be experimented on for the rest of his life? He remembered that he had a mother and a father who loved him, friends that needed him and a girlfriend that he missed. Pounding his fist weakly on the floor, he pleaded, "Please…" Alone, he hated being alone. Although he was in a glass box with people all around him, he never felt more alone than he did right now.

A friendly sounding female voice spoke up finally, "Please stay still while the monitors are taking their readings."

Pictures of his friends, pictures of Aerith smiling and they all waited for him. But were they? Were Cloud and Sephiroth waiting for him anymore? Were they even alive? The simmer became a boil as the thought of Shinra taking everything from him, he had nothing anymore. No friends, no Aerith, no wife, no children and no future, he couldn't take it, his tears of anger flooded over to his cheeks. He sat up and looked at her, his eyes burned a bright fierce fire, "What? Are you talking about these?" He started pulling the leads off of his skin. She pointed to another tech and he pushed a button. White mist crept into his cell as he finished pulling them off, "Fuck your monitors!" He fell over on his side, gasping, as the sedative took over…

…Hands, cold hands touching him softly at first, "Hey Zack! Zack wake up! I don't think he is waking up! Shhh! Oh wait his eyes are open. Zack! Wake up!" Zack's eyes rolled around and couldn't focus on anything. Cold hands had his foot and shook it, "Get over here and help me with him, hurry!"

There were two sets of arms and hands that were hoisting him up to standing, chin resting on his chest. Zack could feel a small drop of drool fall from his lip to his chest, thinking that it was funny that he was drooling on himself, he huffed out a weak laugh.

Just when he was getting used to one voice, a different voice said to him, "Come on Zack, you gotta help us out here, you're too damn heavy."

Someone was slapping his face, he hated that, "Wake the hell up! We gotta go NOW!" Zack tried harder to focus his eyes.

Looking to his left, he saw Barber from the mansion basement and to his right was Lawrence and in his head he said, "Hey guys what's up? How have ya'll been? Nice to see ya again," but all that came out was a mumbled mess of sounds. Zack furrowed his eyebrows at his inability to talk.

Dragging him out of the glass cell, they paused at the outer door to the larger room. Once they were satisfied that they were alone, they walked/dragged him down the hall and into another room that was dim and fairly large. Lawrence locked the door and Barber said, "Hey dude, we're gonna have to get the white pants off him first." Zack watched them and tried to figure out what they were doing. The sedative had his body at its mercy and he had trouble even keeping his eyes open, so if they meant to harm him, he couldn't fight them, so he decided to go completely limp, but they had other plans.

"Well then get over here and help me get him back up," Standing him up, Lawrence wrapped his arms around Zack's ribs and the limp brunette's face planted firmly in his shoulder, Lawrence grunted, "Damn, what the fuck do they feed these guys? Hurry up Barber!" Barber pulled the pants off and they sat him back down on the floor. Unable to hold his sitting position, he flopped over to the side and his head led his shoulders as they slid down the wall behind Lawrence, "Dammit, get the legs on his feet," Barber worked on getting his feet in the leg holes of some pants and Lawrence worked on getting the shirt on one of his arms.

With a great deal of sarcasm, Lawrence started talking to himself, "Gee Lawrence, what did you do today? Well, today I wrestled some clothes on an unconscious mountain of a man. You know the usual." Barber laughed at the amusing statement and once they got him dressed, they worked on getting him upright again, "Okay, Zack wake the fuck up! What the hell did they dose him with?"

Zack said in his head, "I don't know what they gave me, but it is some powerful shit!" Again, Zack felt frustrated that nothing but garbled words and noises came out, but he didn't care anymore, he just wanted to sleep so he mustered up the energy to slap at them with the one finger that he could move on his own.

Standing in front of the man on the bed, Barber and Lawrence looked at each other and then back at Zack and Lawrence laughed, "Dude, we can't understand a damn thing you're saying, and stop giving me the finger." Lawrence chuckled again.

Barber shrugged his shoulders and added, "Don't have a clue what they gave him, but I would like some to give my brother while he's at work! That would he freakin hilarious!"

Zack was finally able to hold his head up a little better, but not much. Barber peeked out in the hall again, "It's clear."

Going out the door, they shuffled down the hall and made it to the elevator. Lawrence pushed the button and when the doors opened, Barber's mouth dropped when he saw Stringer in the now open elevator, "What in the world are ya'll doing?" Stringer jumped out of the elevator into the hallway.

"Just shut up and either help us or get out of our way," Lawrence went to move past him, but Stringer stood there for a moment and then got back in the elevator with them.

They looked at Stringer, "I gotta see how this plays out," He pushed the button for the ground floor, "I mean you are stealing one of Hojo's prized specimens."

Getting Zack to the apartment belonging to Barber's brother, he let them in, "Take him into the bedroom," They literally dropped Zack to the bed and panted with fatigue.

Barber clapped his brother on the shoulder, "Thanks Ronnie, I really appreciate this."

"When he wakes up, just get him out of here, okay Herman?" Barber nodded his head to his brother as he left for work.

"Herman? That's your first name?" Lawrence stifled a laugh, "You don't look like a Herman. No wonder you just go by your last name!"

"Shut up Lawrence! Herman is a family name. Besides, Stringer goes by his last name too," Barber stormed out of the room and Lawrence left and closed the door behind him. At last, Zack was able to sleep and he took advantage of the comfortable bed.

A few hours later, Zack woke up and rubbed his head, feeling like he had a really bad hangover. Trying to remember how he got here, he realized it was a blur.

Just when Zack was getting ready to get up, the door opened and Barber walked in, "Hey there, glad to see you're finally awake man."

"What is going on?" Zack rubbed the side of his head.

Lawrence walked in, "We busted you out of there."

A clear concern crossed his mind. Zack had seen first-hand what Shinra was capable of, "Hey you guys are going to get into some serious trouble. Why would you do that?" Zack searched their faces.

Lawrence pulled a chair from the desk closer to Zack. With a wave of indifference he smiled and said, "Oh don't worry about that. We're going to give you a quick rundown. We got you in a Turk suit, so you can get around on the plate. You have been unconscious most of the time, so don't be shocked at what I'm about to tell you," Lawrence paused and took a deep breath, "It's been almost eleven months since you were shot."

Zack's mouth dropped, "It felt like only a week, maybe two." He ran his hands through his hair nervously.

Barber reached out and handed him something, "Here is a wallet and it has a few bucks to get you out of here. Good luck to ya man," Zack didn't know what to think. He stood up and grabbed both of them in a big "Zack" hug.

Both of their faces squished into a large shoulder and they both squirmed lightly, "Now I know why Cloud always complained. This is terrible," Lawrence said with a small smile across his face.

"Oh! Cloud! I gotta find him! And Sephiroth! … and Aerith," Zack's eyes lit up, "You wouldn't happen to know where they are would you?"

Barber put a finger up to his chin, "We don't know where this Aerith chick is, but I heard that Cloud might be somewhere in Sector 7."

"Thanks guys!" Zack left with a smile on his face and a stomach full of butterflies. Jumping on the last train down to Sector 5; he wanted to see Aerith first and during the train ride he nervously shook his leg. Would she still be there? What would he say to her? His butterflies doubled as he thought of what he'd gone through and he knew she would ask him what happened, but he couldn't tell her how much he'd suffered.

Once the train stopped at the Sector 5 station, he leapt out and ran until he was within sight of her house. It was late and she might be asleep, so he could wait until morning. Just being within sight of the house was good enough for him at this moment.

Breaking him from his thoughts, the front door to the house opened, and not quite ready to face her until he got his feelings in order, he ducked behind a small building and peered over a small wall. Sephiroth came through the doorway, seeing his friend alive and well got him choked up, but he wondered why he was here at Aerith's house this late at night.

That was when he saw Aerith right behind him, gods she looked beautiful; she was a sight that healed so many of his emotional wounds. Unconsciously he gripped the concrete block in front of him, it crumbled under his anticipatory anxiousness, and he wished that she was in his arms.

Then Sephiroth kissed her. Taken by surprise, his head moved back from its perch on the higher blocks of broken concrete, he tilted his head while he tried to process what he was watching. It wasn't a friend kiss, it was a passionate kiss, one that he wanted to give her. Zack felt his heart drop; as he watched as Sephiroth walked away, he swallowed the growing lump in his throat. Deciding to follow Sephiroth, he wanted to see if he went to see Cloud.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reads, favorites, subscribes and/or reviews, I appreciate your time and I dedicate all of this to you. To quote another author, "Getting reviews makes me feel all warm and squishy."

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